Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Germany 2016 - Avantasia - Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose

It's been a busy day in Eurovisiona, as a whole bundle of announcements and early releases have been hitting the newswires all morning. As usual, the German selection holds a lot of promise, with a gaggle of reasonably well-known names - none of whom will be beaten into dismay by a plucky club final contender this year.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for many hardened old rockers was Avantasia - the operatic metal side project of Tobias Sammet from the noted power metal band Edguy. Although to be honest, when you first hear this, a completely different performer will come to mind. A larger, more meaty, loaf shaped performer.

I love this song, but have a major issue with it. It's not a song. It's part of a rock opera. With a certain dramatic impact and meaning. The way this is presented as well in the lyric video is as if this is the trailer for the entire theatrical event. It's definitely not a standalone song. It's as if they were to send "A New Argentina" from Evita or "La Vie Boheme" from Rent as a Eurovision song. All it does is leave me with a bitter taste of self-promotion by the artist. And that's a shame, because the opera might be really good and worth checking out. Had they chosen a song that could serve as a proper single and that might have a life beyond the opera, I might not have been as taken aback by this entry.

What's this blog for?

Every year, the Eurovision Song Contest chucks up some amazing songs, but only a tiny few ever make it through to the televised final stages. For the couple of dozen that make it to Eurovision proper, there are hundreds that fall by the wayside in the semi-finals and local qualification tournaments. And very often that is where the true gems are to be found.

So Eurovision Apocalypse is here to dredge the best (and occasionally worst) of them out of the musical nether regions, as well as some of the other greatest oddities the contest has thrown up over the last fifty-odd years.